Evzdrop Review

Posted by Carter Dotson on December 3rd, 2012
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad

Developer: Evzdrop, Inc.
Price: Free
Version Reviewed: 1.1.1
Device Reviewed On: iPod touch 5

iPhone Integration Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Re-use Value Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

[rating:overall]

I generally find myself skeptical of location-based services that launch. In general, they have too much of a focus on urban dwellers. Something like Foursquare is only interesting for those who live in a big city. As well, it becomes just noise when shared to people on other social networks, just a shallow way to announce that a person is at a certain place, instead of actually adding value to the conversation.

Evzdrop avoids many of those traps. First off, the service is built to actuallya have people say something. There’s a Twitter-esque 140 character text box that requires input whenever a drop is made. This makes it easy to share thoughts on the place. Think the food at this restaurant is terrible? Say that, and include a thumbs down. Think that this bar is the raddest joint on earth? Thumbs up and a cool message will lead the way. Drops can be shared to Twitter or Facebook (or not at all!), and photos can be attached.

[img id="Evzdrop-4-169x300.png"]Second, there’s actually many, many ways to use the service. It’s possible to listen to places akin to following them on Twitter, and to see what’s happening at a certain place, or to see what’s happened recently. For example, when I spoke to the developers of Evzdrop, they mentioned that people have posted photos and updates from sports stadiums, so people can get a special perspective on what’s happening there. It could even be used as a Yelp-type service, where seeing real, recent opinions on a place is possible, or even just to filter to certain types of places and to see what’s around. Essentially, micro-reviews. This means that in suburban areas, where people are more spread out, there’s value in still posting things, as othe people will be able to see them later. Drops are all public, and those who run places can respond to drops, but it can also be done entirely anonymously.

The long-term problem is simple, as with every other service that’s based on location: it needs users. It needs people checking in at places regularly in order to provide content, so that when a person looks, they will actually see what they want to see. It needs places to actually interact with people regularly. The app also needs some cleaning up in its interface. There’s a lot of options, and a lot of the value of the app can get obscured in buttons and options, and things that look like buttons, like the tiny icon in the upper left, seems like it should be a button but is actually a non-interactive icon.

I find myself very interested in what Evzdrop will do in the future: they’ve done a lot to ensure that it’s something that has value even early on as its userbase is growing, and to ensure that there’s actually interesting content on there. But it just needs more to be something truly special.

iPhone Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

Evzdrop screenshot 1 Evzdrop screenshot 2 Evzdrop screenshot 3 Evzdrop screenshot 4 Evzdrop screenshot 5
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